'Longest night' service Tuesday at St. Mark's

This Tuesday, Dec. 21, is the longest night of the year, the
date the sun shines least in the Northern Hemisphere.

It may be symbolic of the Christmas season for people who have
suffered loss, or who are stressed by the season, and by life.

St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, 1431 W. Magee, offers The
Longest Night, a service for those experiencing loneliness,
anxiety, stress, loss or grief during the holiday season. It begins
at 7 p.m. Tuesday, and typically lasts an hour.

“We’d like the community to know we do this,” said Chris
Bahnson, caring ministries coordinator at St. Mark’s.

The Longest Night has its origins in a service given on Holy
Saturday, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. At The Longest
Night, people can “acknowledge their grief and pain, or simply
acknowledge their stress in the season, and sit with their
feelings,” Bahnson said.

It is a quiet service of readings, music and prayers, with
little need for interaction. People “can go inside, and think about
what they’re feeling, and how they’re experiencing the holiday, and
bring that before God.”

At Christmas, many people feel “pressured to feel happy when
they don’t feel happy,” Bahnson said. For whatever reasons – job
loss, financial or relationship stress, a recent death or a death
from long ago — they are “not as happy as our culture says they
should be right now.”

Those who partake say “it’s really important to them to be able
to do that,” Bahnson said, providing relief from the social
situations of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, “where they have to
put on a happy face.

“It’s a wonderful respite, really, to just come and sit in a
dimly lit sanctuary, hear some soft music, hear a message of hope
but not be asked to feel hopeful if that’s not what you’re
feeling,” she said.